This project aimed to design a way for elderly residents of Cambridge to access historical information captured by the Mill Road history team. Research included interviews with the team and elderly locals. Ideas were generated and narrowed to focus on interactions at bus stops. Digital prototypes were created with physical movements and readability for elderly users in mind. An expert evaluation provided positive feedback but testing with real elderly users was recommended to further validate the design.

1. FQVY3 - PAG 2 - DP
Project: Capturing History
This project was created in partnership with the Mill Road - Capturing History team,
its main objective is to communicate all the history captured by our partners through a
design a product, application, technology, or service that enable people who are a new
and completely unexplored user group to have a voice.
Who Is Mill Road?
Before diving into the design process details, it is important to understand what the
Mill Road history team needs, does and their resources.
DESIGN PROCESS
IDEA
GENERATION
CREATING IDEAS
SKETCHES
ITERATING
USER RESEARCH
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
SEMI- STRUCTURED
USER GROUP RESEARCH
INTERVIEWS
EVALUATION
USER TESTING
EXPERT REVIEW
PROTOTYPING
WIREFRAMES
CARDBOARD PROTOTYPE
3D PROTOTYPE
ITERATING
DOES
CAPTURES HISTORY OF PLACES,
BUILDINGS, NOTABLE PEOPLE AND
ANYTHING THAT IS IMPORTANT FOR
HISTORY HERITAGE
RESOURCES
LONG DOCUMENTS ABOUT PLACES
AND AUDIO OF RESIDENTS TELLING
STORIES PEOPLE’S HISTORY PICTURES
NEEDS
AN EXCITING WAY TO EXHIBIT ALL
THE HISTORY MATERIAL CAPTURED
TO THE CAMBRIDGE POPULATION I.E.:
ELASTIC USER

2. FQVY3 - PAG 3 - DP
Design process:
Research
A background research was conducted on the
team I worked with, their project and how similar
projects are conducted around the UK. The Mill Road
Team created a website to update when possible
and create an online catalog with all the material
produced. (Fig 1).
Semi-Structured interviews were conducted with the
Mill Road team to gather information and an idea of
possible user groups they wanted to target.
The main personas they wish to talk to:
Edna the elderly
Josh the unemployed
Holly the student
We could have organised the agenda for the meeting
in the beginning of it; as we did not set a structure
some subjects that were not as useful took a lot of
time from our conversation with them.
The Mill Road Team

3. FQVY3 - PAG 4 - DP
Design process:
Research
User Group Research was done to find the sweet
spot of the elderly target group in Cambridge.
This step could have been improved if we interviewed
local elderly to validade research results.
Edna was our choice due to very important
quotes we heard during our research:
“Cambridge: it’s either full
of young students or elderly.
You don’t see many people in
between”
“I need training to learn how to
use the website.”

4. FQVY3 - PAG 5 - DP
Idea Generation Process: Elaboration
During this phase I sketched several ideas to be implemented in Cambridge, I wish I had more time to draw so I
could have improved my drawing skills more.
Narrowing
ReductionElaboration

5. FQVY3 - PAG 6 - DP
Narrowing
During the narrowing phase, after iterating the designs sketched it was decided that our ideas had to not have
any requirements, such as phones, tweeting, liking. The human body would be enough to interact with it.
I believe this was a smart choice to get to the target group effectively.

6. FQVY3 - PAG 7 - DP
Reduction
After iterating our designs once again using the
scales below to measure the possible efficiency of
each idea, related to the target group. The team
decided where our idea should take place: Bus Stops.
I believe more iteration and ideas could have been
generated and discussed, however there were time
constraints.
Elderly
benefit:
free bus pass
Perfect
location!

7. FQVY3 - PAG 8 - DP
Prototyping
The main idea and design were defined, therefore we worked on digital prototypes; wireframes were drafted
and we researched about movements that elderly users would be able to interact with. Anthropometric data
and academic research were used to ensure comfortable and easily achievable movements.

8. FQVY3 - PAG 9 - DP
Prototyping
After iterating the prototypes, the final physical
design is on the right, and below few screens of our
system. Academic research proofs that serif fonts
are easier for elderly people to read, for this reason
Avenir and Monteserrat Bold are in our visual identity.
The colour palet used the Mill Road project brand
guidelines.
I am not happy with the final interface desing, I would
have reworked it, however most of our team was
happy with it. In my opinion it is too colorful and not
consistent.

9. FQVY3 - PAG 10 - DP
Evaluation
An expert evaluation was conducted to ensure our
system and modements were completly achieavable
and made sense to the target user.
Takeaways
1. Mobility can be an issue if the interaction is
too long due to standing up issues the target
population has.
2. System feedback is a must to stimulate this target,
it is covered in every step of the interactions as
you can see on the right in one of the screens.
3. Elderly people read instructions, therefore our
screen can have a lot of texts, according to the
expert this is another point that my project ticks.
Apart from the positive feedback fomr the expert,
I would like to have conduced an Oz usability
technique with at least five elderly people from
Cambridge, get their feedback and iterate the
design once again.

10. FQVY3 - PAG 11 - DP
Critical Summary
Researching via observating the elderly
The initial meeting needed more structure
Our creative process needed more iteration
A real size prototype could have been made
Oz method would help validating our design
Aknowledgments:
Wireframes and Designs by Gustavo Soto
Digital Sketch above: Matthew Pateman